Hero's Saber
by Sean Son of Athena
Summary: When I think of a summer camp I imagine camp fires, sports, fishing, and sharing a cabin with a bunch strangers. What I don't expect is having to go cross country to save some people I've never met, and bunking with a bunch of people claiming to be my siblings. But hey in my life I've learned that things don't always turn out the way you want.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not Own PJO or HoO**

**Hero's Saber**

I know somebody who wrote something a lot like this, he's pretty well known for it too. His name is Percy Jackson. If you read it and didn't believe him or you thought it was just fiction then just keep reading, you have a normal life. The first thing about being a half blood is that you always have to be on guard. You can turn a corner and there it is, a monster trying to kill and, or eat you. So don't say Percy and I didn't warn you.

So before I begin let me tell you who I am. My name is Sean Kennedy, I'm in my sophomore year in high school and have light red hair, freckles and grey eyes - the average ginger. I was in band class, the director was yelling at my section for messing up the trio for the fifth time that day. He had crazy hair that stood up on end and was bald in areas. "Do it one more time!" we sighed and lifted out trumpets. We started to play, but the freshman at the end- Lexie Greyson-think that's her name- messed up a note and it sounded _really _bad. "Thats it! Everybody except Lexie and Sean out!"

_What did I do! _I thought to myself as I put away my horn. We waited until everyone was gone before we approached the director. "You told us to stay?" I asked.

"Yes, you two are a constant problem in my class" he said in a booming voice. I he walked towards us quickly. "You two need to be out of my class for good."

Lexie flinched and narrowed her eyes. "Okay sir, we'll just leave... come on Sean." and she started pushing me towards the door.

"What no! I love this class you can't kick me out I'm one of your best trumpets!" I protested pulling my arm out of her grip and walking back over to our director. "Why are you kicking _me _out!? I wasn't the one that messed up it was blondie over there!"I shouted as I pointed in her direction.

Lexie scoffed at me. "I'll have you know-"

"Oh I didn't ask you to leave, I have a different way of getting rid of you" he interrupted. His body grew twice its original size and his head got larger and fatter, his eyes seemed to slide inward and form a single large eye. "Come here so your deaths are quick and a little less painful!" He lunged for me and I fell on my back to avoid his gigantic hands.

"Now do you want to get out of here!?" Lexie shout at me from the door as she grabbed something out of her jacket and used her other hand to pull me to my feet as my director- or whatever he was- used both his fists to pummel the floor where I had just been. "What are you waiting for!? You trying to get yourself killed? Lets go!

"What- what the heck was that!" I screamed as I followed her down the hallway, running for my life. I could hear the band room door being thrown open behind us.

"No time to explain! We have to get out of here!" She shouted back as she made a sharp turn to the left. This was the the first time I noticed what she was holding- it was a sword.

"Where the hell did you get that!?" I said as we rounded another corner in the hallway, most the classes were still in for another few minutes so the hallway was deserted, but I could still hear the creature chasing after us a few rooms away.

"What did I just say!I'll explain later!"" She snapped at me at we came to an intersection in the hallway. "Styx! Which way was it!" She cursed to herself and turned right.

We rounded another corner and there he was. He towered three feet over us and looked rather angry about the door slamming in his face during our escape. "Well I can't just let you escape" he grinned as he stomped towards us.

"Stay back!" Lexie threatened as she pointed her sword at his hardened chest. "I have no problem killing you!" She thrust her blade at the monster.

"Ha!" he boomed. "You half-bloods and your little toothpicks. It won't do you any good. I'll kill you both before you can even say 'holy Hera.'" He smiled as he stepped closer to us.

Lexie and I were about four feet from the creature now. She pulled me behind her like she was going to shield me. I must have looked pretty funny, me hiding behind a freshman girl like a scared little boy. "Stay behind me, and don't get in my way" she ordered. I nodded because I didn't know what else to do. The thing that had once been my band director charged and Lexie threw me to the hard floor.

It barreled past us at a speed that would have crushed us if he had ran into me or Lexie. Lexie turned around and jumped over me as the monster crashed into the hallway wall. She sprinted towards it and slashed her sword down its back. It howled as it started to disintegrate. It literally disintegrated like it was made of sand. Soon enough there was nothing left of it but a pile of golden colored sand that Lexie kicked with her foot to spread it.

"Y-you just killed our teacher!" I yelled as she pulled me off my feet.

"First of all it was trying to kill _us_!" she shouted as she put away her sword. "And secondly, that was not a teacher, that was a Cyclops." The bell went off and the hallways were filled with teenagers. "We need to get out of here, there's likely to be more than just one."

This girl had to be crazy - maybe I was going crazy too. "What do you mean _more_!?" I asked as we exited the building and went to the track.

"You don't honestly think that there's only one of them do you?" she asked sarcastically. "I'm here to keep you safe, your dad told us that he feared something was hunting you so I was sent to keep you safe and, if needed, to get you out of here. And the only way I'm going to be able to do that is if you do everything I say no questions asked!"

"What did he call you back there? Half-Blood?" I asked, still shaking from what I had just seen.

"Gods you ask a lot of questions! Did you not listen to a word I just said!? I'll explain it _later!_ When we're away from here!"

"Just answer the question!"

"Fine! Let's just say we aren't like everybody else here. We're different. Got it? Now no more questions!" I looked at her strangely but didn't respond. She led me over to the metal fence and lifted it so I could get through then followed.

We walked to my house, it wasn't very large, but it was decently sized. Luckily my Dad and stepmother were away at work, and my step-brother Conner was away at school still. "Okay, now that we're not at school. What the hell is going on!?" I screamed, probably a little louder than I should have.

"Haven't you ever wondered who your mother was? Did your dad ever talk about her?" She began.

It's true I had never met my mother, Dad never talked much about her he just always told me she was smart and could solve any problem.

"You know that weird weather that was across the country over the summer?" She continued

"What does that have to do with anything!? I just saw you kill some creature with a sword."

"It has everything to do with what just happened!" She took me to the window. "There is more than just monsters out there, there are gods" she continued.

"You aren't saying what I think you're saying are you?" She just nodded and moved her hands motioning for me to continue the thought. "You are saying my mother is one of these gods?"

She nodded and said "My mother is Athena. The Greek gods weren't just myths, they actually exist." She looked out the window "Looks like our ride is here. Grab your stuff, we're going to Long Island."

I also looked out the window and saw the strangest thing so far. There was a white winged horse pulling a wooden chariot sitting in my front lawn. My jaw dropped. "What is that!?" I asked completely stunned at what I was seeing.

"What do you think it is, its a pegasus, now go get your stuff we're leaving." she ordered as she patted me on the back. "This is just the beginning." She helped me pack my suitcase with some clothes and other stuff I would want to bring.

Soon enough I was standing on my lawn with my suitcase then I remembered what I was doing. "What about my Dad, won't he wonder where I've gone?" I asked turning back towards the house.

"He's the one who asked for one of us to come get you, he'll know where I took you." she explained. "We have to get out of here before more monsters come to kill us." Her voice sounded urgent. She motioned towards the vacant chariot and said "Your training must begin immediately. Camp Half-Blood is the only safe place for any of us to be."

"Where is it?" I asked as I got in next to her in the chariot.

"Long Island, before you say it, I know that Long Island is a long way from California but its actually not a long flight with the right equipment." She smirked and she flicked the reins of the chariot and we burst into the sky. As we shot into the sky I felt the chariot lurch forward and we shot away at an unbelievable speed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Well, here we are! Home sweet home! Well for me at least, it'll probably take some getting used to for you." announced Lexie as we flew over a forested area. I could see a small strawberry field in a small clearing and as we got closer I started to notice that there was a ring of cabins in a corner of the clearing and more were being constructed.

"This is Camp Half-Blood? It looks more like a farm." I said skeptically. She ignored me so I said "So... there are more people like you?"

"And like you, we're _both _Half-Bloods don't you get it yet?" She said as if I had said something stupid. She landed the chariot on a small landing strip next to some stables. After we landed she let Pegasus out of its harness and made me help her put away the flying chariot. "Follow me, Chiron will need to show you the orientation film." she ordered.

She led me to a two story house that looked like it belonged in some movie about the Great Dust Bowl. There were a couple of kids sitting in chairs on its deck. They looked at me like a new specimen; I felt like the new kid at school, which in a sense I was. When we entered there was an old man sitting in a wheelchair and a rather plump man wearing a leopard print shirt and looked like he hated every moment in the building. They sat around a ping pong table playing some sort of card game. "Hey Chiron, this is Sean, the boy I was sent to retrieve from California" Lexie said respectfully as she stepped out of the way.

The old man had thinning brown hair and a stubby beard. "Welcome Sean, how was the flight?" he asked as if it was completely normal to be attacked by monsters, told my mother is a god, and be flown across the whole country in just a few seconds. I didn't answer I Just stood there unable to speak. He grinned. "My names Chiron, there is much you must learn. Now come there is a orientation video that you should watch before we take you to the Hermes cabin."

"So I can go now right?" Lexie said from the door.

"No, I want you to stay to show him around, he'll probably want somebody he knows to show him around." I didn't know Lexie very well, we had only talked a couple of times and I had found her to be obnoxious, she was always showing off in class and tended to compete with people.

"Can I come back when it's over? I need to check some plans for Capture the Flag with Malcolm and Annabeth."

"You mean go make out with Austin?" Said a blond guy sitting on the couch that I hadn't noticed.

"No one asked you Will! And Austin's not even here! You of all people should know that seeing as he's your brother." He smiled and returned to looking out the window.

"So how was the video?" Lexie asked as she lead me out the door.

The video was... Interesting, I'm not sure if I believed it at the time. It seemed so far fetched, the Greek gods living in Olympus above the Empire State Building and monsters attacking their children. "I think I've gone crazy..."

"They've changed it since I saw it. What's in it? Does it like explain how demigods come into the world and all of that because that'd be really awkward."

I shook my head. "That would be disgusting, what goes through that mind of yours?"

"A lot of things really, it can get really annoying at times, like this one time in my spanish class when we were practicing new verbs and I zoned out and started saying the Greek equivalents in my head, then the teacher called on me and I answered the question in greek by mistake, and this was when I didn't even know I knew Greek so I was equally as shocked as my classmates."

"You know Greek?"

She nodded, "Yeah you do too; all demigods know it, just some know more than others at first. You just naturally know it, it's one of the things you get regardless of your parentage."

"What do you mean?"

Well all demigods receive gifts or skills from their godly parent, it's something that their exceptionally good at. For example the Demeter kids." She said pointing to the cabin next to us that had a grassy roof and plants everywhere. "Their mom's the goddess of the harvest, so they all have green thumbs and can control plants at will."

"I'm not good with plants, I kill any plant I touch" I said sarcastically, she laughed.

"I didn't think you were. I'm not the best with them either. So anyways... Welcome to Camp Half-Blood making heroes since Ancient Greece." I gave her a confused look, "I know you've already been given a welcome, but I'm obligated to say that."

"Okay then..."

"So as you can see, we currently have a good bit of construction going on. Originally there were only twelve cabins, the ones that you see here;" she said gesturing to them, "each one is for Olympian god, but as of eight months ago in August we started adding cabins for Hades, Iris, Hypnos, Nemesis, Nike, Hebe. Tyche, and Hecate. Once you are claimed you will be staying in the cabin of your parent."

"So am I going to be sleeping outside until then?"

"No you'll be staying here at the Hermes cabin." She said as she walked up to the most normal looking cabin of the bunch. "Keep in mind who Hermes is, I advise you watch your pockets..." She gave me one last pointed look at the brothers before running off to a cabin.

I looked around the cabin, the bunks were all full of bags and the floor had a few sleeping bags covering it, but I could tell there were usually more. There was a T.V. in a corner and somebody was playing Skyrim and somebody next to him laughed as he threw somebody of the top of a mountain.

"Hey" said the boy,that wasn't playing, he looked to be about a year older than me and a bit taller. He nudged the gamer and said "Travis, we got company."

The other boy, who I assumed to be Travis paused his game and turned towards me. "Oh gods, looks like we've got ourselves a leprechaun" he joked. "Grab a sleeping bag from the closet, there should be one in there." he ordered.

I went over to the closet and when I opened it I heard a string snap with a sharp _twang. _Then about a dozen sleeping bags and assorted camping materials -including a rather large frying pan - came clattering out of it and landed on me.

I could hear them laughing. "That one always works, Connor, why don't you go help him put that stuff back in." Then the first boy got up and helped me shove everything except one of the sleeping bags back inside the closet. "Newbies always get pranked some way or another."

"So... umm where will I be sleeping?" I asked as Connor walked back towards whom I assumed was his twin brother because they looked exactly alike.

Travis pointed off in a random direction and said "just find a place on the floor. All the bunks are taken." I looked around for a place that was large enough and set my bag down, but didn't place my suitcase down because of what Lexie had warned me about. I was about to sit down on one of the bunks, but a horn went off.

"Finally!" announced Travis setting down his controller. "I'm starving, let's go eat. Come on new kid I'll take you to the dining pavilion."

I followed Travis and Connor through the camp and into the dining pavilion. There were twelve long wooden tables that each were full of kids except for the last four and there was another table that went along the front of the other tables. I tried to sit down next to Travis and Connor, but all the seats were full so I was forced to sit on an upside down trash can at the end of the table. Now I noticed the food. The table was loaded with food, but nobody was eating. They had filled their plates but refrained from stuffing their faces with the delicious looking foods. So I did the same in attempt to fit in.

"Hello Sean" said a voice behind me. I turned to see what I thought was a man riding a house, but then I took a second look. I noticed that the man had no legs, his torso was where the horses head should go, he was a centaur. Then I noticed it was Chiron, the man that had welcomed me to the camp. "Surprised to see me in this form?" He asked.

I must have looked simply baffled because all I could manage was "umm... uhh, you're a-"

"A Centaur, I know" he interrupted. "May I accompany you to the fire pit for the offering?"

"What offering?"

"Every night we burn offerings of our food to the gods" he explained. "Campers toss half of their plate of food into a large fire as an offering to their parent." All of the campers started getting up every now and then and would walk over to the fire.

I followed Chiron over to the large flaming logs. He nodded towards me. I reached forward with my plate and scraped off some of my mashed potatoes along with one of my biscuits '_I don't know who you are Mom, but please... tell me' _I said in my head, half hoping she could hear me.

When I looked up everybody was staring at me. "I did I do it wrong?" I asked awkwardly. They all shook their heads and pointed up above my head. There was an owl sitting using its wings to hover about a meter from my head.. It held a book in its talons. Within a few milliseconds of me noticing it the bird released the _rather _large book right above me. It landed right on my head. "Oww!" I exclaimed. The book bounced off my head right into my hands after I dropped it, the book was _The Fall of Troy._

"Annabeth come over here please!" called Chiron. A blonde girl ran over from a table of about five people, I noticed Lexie was among them.

"Yes, Chiron?" She stood in front of both of us.

"Please take your new brother to your table."

"Brother?"

"Yes meet Sean Kennedy, your new brother." She looked at me and then back a Chiron.

"The ginger?"

"You got something against gingers!?" I challenged her.

"No it's just we haven't seen too many gingers in our cabin..."

"How many?"

"You... come on I'll introduce you to everyone." She said leading me over to the table. She introduced each one of the kids at the table then had me sit down next to her. Lexie was sitting across from me and had a look of questionable-disbelief. "Lexie, Malcolm, this is Sean."

"I know who he is I'm the one who brought him here! He's the one I told you about!"

"You mean the one who wouldn't stop asking questions?" The boy next to Lexie said.

"Yes that exactly! Now what is he doing over here!?"

"He's apparently our brother."

"Hey Lexie," I said trying to ignore her comment. "Unexpected huh?"

"I'll say I had my drachmas on Nemesis."

"What are drachmas?"

"You see! Non-stop questioning! It's the money of the gods to put it in simple terms."

"Lexie, go easy on the boy, this is all new to him." interrupted Annabeth. She looked towards me. "Sorry about that Sean, she's kind of a smart ass."

"We'll so are you!" Lexie countered.

"I never said I wasn't" grinned Annabeth. "Anyway, we lost quite a few of our siblings during last year's battle. Its good to have another sibling join us.

"You could just say we lost four of our siblings instead of being passive aggressive about it."

"You don't call losing four of our brothers and sisters losing too many!" Malcolm slammed his hands down on the wooden table and abruptly stood up. "Kim died keeping you alive and you insult them by saying that!"

"How in Hades name is that insulting them!?" Lexie shouted getting to her feet as well. "And how dare you say I don't honor them!" She yelled shoving her brother. "You try having one of us die for you and see how you feel afterwards! You try living with the guilt!" Lexie and Malcolm were practically at each other throats.

I didn't know what was going on or what I should do. I just sat there watching my new _siblings _shout at each other. Luckily Annabeth stopped them before things got worse. "Both of you calm down!" mediated Annabeth forcefully. "Lex, you know Malcolm's still sensitive about what happened." Malcolm rolled his eyes at the use of _sensitive._ "And Malcolm, we all grieve in different ways. You need to calm down and look at this from her point of view." Both of them went to protest, but Annabeth glared at them ,and they both sat back down in their seats. "Good, now Lexie will you take Sean to the cabin. I have some things I need to talk to Malcolm."

Lexie sighed and said "Fine, follow me." She motioned for me to grab my things and to follow her out of the pavilion. Once we were outside she said "I can't believe Malcolm would say that! I went through the same thing he did." I didn't answer, I figured she was trying to vent so I didn't say anything. "Sean, you're lucky. You just got here, you didn't have to deal with the the war or losing your friends and siblings!"

"I'm sorry about that Lexie, I honestly don't know what you want me to say that will help."

"Wasn't expecting you to." She sighed "I guess I'm just letting it out. Come on, lets go. That pack must be heavy."

She led me over to a cabin that had light-blue, stone walls and golden pillars on all four sides. The door had a wooden carving of an owl holding an olive branch in one of its talons and holding itself up with the other. She opened the door to reveal a room with twelve bunks crammed against the far wall. There were desks against all of the other walls, each desk had a stack of poorly piled papers and had a rather generic looking metal lamp on each. The two side walls didn't have windows, Instead there were white boards. Again the white boards were cluttered with plans and diagrams. One of them was a drawing of the camp and there were lines from random positions that led to others, but I didn't take the time to analyze each one specifically.

"So you can have the bunk over there, it used to be Kim's" she paused for a moment to think about her- _our_ deceased sister. "Go put your stuff down next to it, the Apollo kids starting the campfire."

I slid the heavy pack off my back and walked back over to her. "What goes on at this campfire?"

She looked at me oddly, "Have you never been to a summer camp before?"

"I was going to go to one this summer, but … well you see where I landed."

"We pretty much just sing camp songs, the Apollo cabin is in charge of it, and Sean" She waited for me to be looking right at her. "Thanks for listening to me, I needed to let that out."

"What are big brothers for?" I said nicely.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, just remember you have a sister that's stronger than you" she grinned punching me in the arm. "Come on or we'll miss the smores."

**Sean: I want to thank the **_**second **_**best sister a man could have, She's a great editor, and an annoying friend.**


	3. Chapter 3

Apart from the fact that I was almost killed by my my band director, flown across the country in a very rickety chariot that was being piloted by someone who turned out to be my sister, my first day at camp was okay. The next morning after breakfast Annabeth had Lexie take me to our weapons shed so I could get myself a weapon.

"So, lets see... what kind of weapon would you use?" she asked herself. She looked me over, analyzing every part of me. "Here try this" she said holding a rather large sword out to me. I took it hesitantly from her looking at her for reassurance, she nodded, "Go ahead, give it swing."

"Okay." I said nervously. I swung the sword widely, but its momentum was too great and it flew out of my hands. The blade flew within an inch of Lexies head and embedded in the wooden wall.

"Uhhh... I'll just put this back then" she said before she yanked the blade out of the wall and put it with the rest. "How do you feel about daggers? Or maybe you could join the peace core?"

"Or you can go be a target on the archery range" I retaliated, before I could even laugh at my own joke I was pinned up against the shed with a dagger against my throat.

"Now do you want to rephrase what you just said or do you want to put your money where your mouth is?"

I didn't speak until she removed the blade from my throat. "Didn't mean to touch a nerve, I think I'll pass on the dagger."

"Not exactly my thing either, but they have their uses. How about this?" She handed me a sword.

"I don't think this one is the best either..." I said after I had taken the sword, it felt slightly awkward in my hand, but it was better than the first one.

"Well we have plenty of other swords, but I can't guarantee a perfect match. So we could continue searching or you could just use this one until we get the time to make you one in the forge."

I took another glance into the shed and decided there were way too many weapons to try out, "I think I'll just stick with this one for the time being..."

"Thank gods," she said throwing the weapons she had started to pull out back into the shed. They landed with a loud clang and knocked down several other weapons in the process. Lexie cringed and turned to me. "I'll clean that up later..."

"Sure you will..."

She rolled her eyes and leaned back into the shed to grab something, "Here," she tossed me sheathe, "I think this one goes to that sword. So now that you've got a weapon, let's teach you how to use it." She smirked and motioned for me to follow her.

As I went to catch up to her I heard her chuckling. "What's so funny?" I asked once I was next to her.

"Oh nothing... this is just going to be _a lot _of fun."

She brought me over to an arena where the rest of our siblings already were. The arena was surrounded on one side by a black, metal fence and the other side had stone seats that looked down upon the sandy floored center. I could see Annabeth and Malcolm sparing at the center of the pit. Our other two siblings were sparing in the opposite corner.

"Okay, here's a shield." said Lexie shoving a chunk of metal into my hands.

The shield was a solid piece of rounded wood with a bronze center and had an arm strap on the opposite side. She waited for me to place my arm in the strap before she pulled out her sword and put on her shield.

"Okay, now copy my stance." She ordered. I lifted my sword and pointed it at her, over my shield like she was doing. She shook her head and said "hold it closer to the blade, it'll improve your balance." She released her pose and grabbed my sword forcing me to correct my stance.

"Thats better. Now, knock me over." Did I hear her right? Did she just say to knock her over? I gave her a confused look. "Well what are you waiting for? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Don't waste it!"

I smiled slightly, "If you insist." I lowered my sword and leaned forward with my shield and swung it at her. I thought my shield was going to strike her, but she rolled out of my way and kicked out my feet. I fell to the ground with a heavy _thud!_

"You didn't think I was just going to stand there did you?" She chuckled. "Try it again."She pulled me back up and braced herself again. This time I watched my opponent. I looked at her knees to see when she was going to move. When I tried again I shoved my shield high towards her upper chest and kicked out with my legs. This time she jumped back avoiding both assaults. "Thats better, but you're going to need more to get me." She smirked.

Now I was put on the defensive. She bashed me with her shield with such fury that all I was able to do to keep from being pummeled was duck behind my shield.

"Okay, okay. White flag, I surrender."She slowly ceased her assault on my shield and retreated a few meters away.

"You shouldn't surrender so easily" she said angrily. "I would have kicked at the person's feet and hoped to knock them off balance. This went on for half an hour. Lexie was unrelenting. She repeatedly pummeled me with her shield. By the end of it I was covered in black and blue bruises.

"Are we done yet?" I pleaded as I held my bruised shield arm.

"No way, we're just getting started, now lift up your blade" she barked. Once I had the sword halfway up she sung her sword towards me. I parried the swing but just barely. "You should be better than this!" she taunted. "Mom would be embarrassed!"

I got angry, I swung my sword in a wide arch. She used her sword's cross guard to deflect the blow and yank it away from me. She continued her slicing motions against my shield. On her final blow the shield snapped. The sword went through the splintered shield and into my arm.

Pain shot up my wounded limb. I yanked the shields velcro strap off my arm and squeezed my arm trying to stop the blood from gushing out.

"Annabeth get a medic!" screamed Lexie. Annabeth ran off to find somebody a few seconds later. Lexie dropped her sword and crossed the small amount of distance between us. She took the strap from my shield and tightened it back around my arm. "You're gonna be fine. It happened to me the first time too, well actually it was my leg" she comforted.

I was forced to sit still with the searing pain until Annabeth came back with one of the Apollo campers. He and Lexie Lifted me onto my feet and helped me get to the Big House.

I was upright on a cot in the infirmary. The Apollo kid was sitting next to me wrapping a bandage around my arm. He had sent Lexie to go get something he called nectar. When she came back she was holding a glass of something that looked like apple juice. "I'll be right back, don't let him drink too much of that" he smiled at Lexie before he walked away.

"How you feeling?" asked Lexie as she handed me the glass.

"Like I was pummeled by an entire football team" I groaned.

She smiled like it was a compliment. Just drink it, Ginger." She punched me lightly on the arm.

I rolled my eyes and took a sip from the liquid. Gods it was good. It tasted a lot like Ginger Ale. I immediately started gulping it down as if I hadn't had anything to drink for a week. When I was halfway done with the glass she stopped me.

She placed the glass down on the floor at her feet. "That's enough, you'll combust if you have any more." she warned. "It's called nectar, it's the drink of the gods." I could feel my arm get slightly warm. I felt the skin under my cast tightening around where I had been cut. "It has healing properties to it, but if we drink too much of it we'll burst into flames."

"Wow, that's a little scary... Well I'm ready to leave, you?" She nodded and followed me out the door. Annabeth had told us they would probably be down at the archery range when we were done.

When we got there none of our siblings were there . Lexie pointed to a note that had been left on the bow rack.

_We ended early, gave everyone the rest of the day off._

_~Annabeth_

"Well then, there we go" said Lexie happily. "Day off, good because I really didn't want to go to Ancient Greek today." Lexie walked away from the archery range and back towards the cabin. "I have some things I need to finish for tomorrows capture the flag, go find something to do, see ya at dinner." Then she disappeared down the road.

I wandered around the camp for about an hour. There were kids barely older than eight running around chasing each other with swords, people climbing on a gigantic rock wall that was spilling out large amounts of lava at random points - I thought it all looked very dangerous, I couldn't believe a summer camp like this existed. Then there were slightly more normal things like teens playing basketball or fishing.

I stopped at the volleyball courts and watched a few people playing. One of the girls came over to me after her friends called a break to drink some water. She had dark brown hair that hung down to her shoulders and had similarly colored eyes. "You wanting to join us?" she asked awkwardly. Then I realised I had been staring.

"Oh.. uhh" I stuttered trying to remember what she had just said. "Sure, but I'm not very good."

She laughed. "It's just a friendly game, you'll do fine." Her friends had started to assemble around the net. She had me follow her over. She was actually really good, it was her and me against two of the Hermes campers I remembered from dinner the previous night.

When the game was over we- well, she because I didn't really do anything- had scored more than twenty points, while the other team had barely scored ten. The Hermes campers walked away angrily from getting their asses kicked. We walked over to the stone wall that surrounded the court and sat down on top of it.

"I don't think I ever got your name." I said tiredly.

"Ellie, I'm one of the Nike campers." she answered. "I've been here for a year now and I haven't seen you before, are you that new kid?"

I nodded, "Yeah, name's Sean, Athena claimed me last night."

She smiled, "Then you don't know much that goes on here do you?" I shook my head, I was a little embarrassed to admit that I honestly had no clue what was going on. "Well tomorrow is capture the flag night, I see that you've at least _tried _to use a sword." She pointed towards my bandaged arm.

"Sister's way of saying I care." I joked.

"Obviously." She stood up and looked back towards me. "Well nice meeting you. Don't let your sister win every time, winning is one of the best feelings in the world..." She trailed off before climbing over the wall and disappeared in a crowd of other kids.

When I returned to the Athena cabin I saw Annabeth and Malcolm huddled around a map of the camp. Amanda, one of my other sisters was talking was talking to Matthew. Lexie was sitting on her bed checking her arrows.

"Oh, hey Sean." Said Annabeth without looking up from the map. "Malcolm found some armor that should fit you, he placed it on your bed." She pointed over to a large pile of bronze and a metal helmet with a small blue plume at the top. "Try it on and see if it fits." She ordered.

I walked over to my bed and started attempting to put on the armor. After about ten minutes of fiddling with the straps I was able to get the chestplate on my chest. The bracers that covered my forearms were a little harder to attach but finally I was able to get all of the armor on.

Annabeth looked at my weirdly, "You do know you put the chestplate on backwards right?" I looked down and sure enough she was right. "Okay, well as long as it fits you can take it off, go place it in your trunk. It should also be under your bed." Then she went back to figuring out a plan for capture the flag.

I pulled the heavy trunk out from under the bunk. When I flung the lid up I noticed that there was already stuff inside it. There were two daggers and assorted clothes. Lexie looked over at me. "Is this stuff Kim's?" I asked.

She nodded and sat down next to me on my bed. "I guess we forgot to clean out her stuff..." She leaned over and grabbed one of the small blades. She twirled it in its sheathe. "Her dad will probably want her belongings." She closed the trunk without placing the dagger back in. "You don't mind not having a trunk for another day do you?" I shrugged and she said "thanks" before she slid it back under my bed.

"You were really close to her huh?" I asked placing my hand on her shoulder.

Again she nodded. "Other than Malcolm, she was my best friend. I was able to talk to her about anything." She smiled as she looked at the small blade in her hands. She seemed to be remembering something from her past that must have involved her and KIm.

"Want me to leave you alone?" I asked. She nodded and I stood up leaving my sister to her memories.


	4. Chapter 4

We were all standing below what Annabeth had called Zeus's Fist. Lexie and Malcolm were next to me along with Matthew and Amanda. We were all clad in armor. Our allied cabins were around us as well. Annabeth had been able to talk Poseidon, Hephaestus, Demeter, and the Hermes cabins into allying with us. We only had two of the minor god cabins allied with us though, the Tyche and Nike cabins. We were at a great disadvantage when it came to numbers.

I saw Ellie standing with two other kids, I assumed them to be her brothers. I waved to her and she smiled, her brothers both rolled their eyes.

"Okay, team, the Ares cabin has been preparing for a week to win this!" Annabeth yelled from the top of the rock where she stood next to a tall boy with messy black hair. "We're going to leave them disappointed." She looked over at the Hephaestus campers. "Go set gas traps by the river, its the quickest way here." They nodded and ran off carrying their large packs of mettle and gas cylinders. Then she ordered the Hermes campers to split up, half of them would go with her and some boy named Percy while the other half stayed behind to protect the flag. "Demeter campers, you are going to be on patrol squad, if you see them, I want you to slow them down enough for us to get the flag and come back." They all nodded but didn't move. She didn't give orders to the minor god kids, they must have already known what to do.

Malcolm stopped me and Lexie from following the rest of our siblings that were part of the Assault squads. "You two are going to stay back and make sure everything goes well here." he ordered.

"Why do _I _have to stay, I know what I'm doing. He's the newbie!" Lexie argued pointing at me.

"Because, if they get past us we need somebody with some actual brains to stay back here." Retaliated Malcolm. "Get to your positions, the game's about to blow." then he walked away from us and towards Annabeth.

Lexie kicked the dirt angrily as we walked into the bushes to set our ambush. "Stupid Malcolm... Doesn't think I can handle myself. This is all because of what happened to Kim." She kicked a rock into a bush and I heard one of the campers scream obscenities from inside the bush. "Whatever, lets just get this over with." Me and her ducked into one of the thick bushes that surrounded our flag.

My mind started to drift during the short amount of time we were there. I could hear two of the Hermes campers talking a few feet over. "You hear that Apollo guy still hasn't come back?" Said one of them.

Lexie pushed me over so she could hear better. "That's a little weird, usually Austin is careful to avoid being caught, I wonder what's taking him so long." Lexie froze immediately. _Austin... Austin, where had I heard that name before? _

Everyone was silent as four kids wearing helmets with bright red plumes approached. The lead one was a tall girl whose long hair was cut in random places and appeared to have been cut by a hedge trimmer.

"Clarisse, this has to be a trap." A boy next to her said. He looked to be about half her size. He looked around but didn't appear to spot us.

"That's obvious Mark!" She threw her spear into the bush with the two Hermes campers. They bolted out of the bush to avoid being skewered by the spear. "Well, thats two of them.

Lexie whistled softly and all the Hermes campers along with me, my sister and the Nike campers lept out of our cover and charged towards them. We could have easily taken just the four of them, but after the first ten Hermes campers reached Clarisse and the other three boys another ten came out from behind where we had all been hiding.

Eventually Lexie and I were back to back trying to fend off two of the Ares campers - and I say Ares because these guys looked like they were going to tear my head off. I was obviously losing my fight, the guy was just a better swordsman than I was.

He stomped down on my ankle and I clattered to the ground leaving Lexie's backside exposed. He stepped over me and grabbed Lexie by the arms and threw her on top of me.

"Your elbow is in my face!" I yelled. She just used her elbow to roll back onto her feet. The Ares boys kept on pressing us, waiting for us to make a mistake. We kept on fighting as hard as we could.

* * *

Now before I continue I just want to say, I don't remember exactly what happened next. All I know is that somehow ended up hanging in a tree. I must have been up there for about two hours when I finally heard a voice below me.

"Whatcha up to?" I looked down to see Lexie smirking up at me.

"Oh... Just hanging around." I groaned. "Will you help me get down." Both of my legs were caught between the tree's branches.

"Sure, but first I've gotta ask. How did you manage to get stuck nearly five feet off the ground in a tree?" She paced the ground around me, grinning menacingly.

"Just get me down." I complained. "I'm starting to get a headache"

She laughed, "Okay, okay." She reached up to grab my arms, "On three okay? One-"

"NO! NO! NO!" I tried to stop her.

"Two." She said grinning evilly.

"NO, wait!"

"Three!" She pulled down on my arms as hard as she could, she was stronger than she looked. I could hear The tree limb starting to crack.

"Well crap." I told myself as I went plummeting face first to the ground. My face landed right in a large pile of mud. "God damn it Lex!"

"Hope you weren't too lonely up there. Did the tree nymphs keep you company?"

I glared at her angrily. "Did we at least win?" I said as I spat the mud out of my mouth.

"No so expect an angry speech from Annabeth tonight. And a lot of pre-planning for next week's game." She handed me my sword that had fallen on the ground while I was hanging from the tree. "Oh and you've got something right there." She smirked gesturing to my entire face.

Again I glared at her, but I ignored the comment. "Ahh great, she basically forced the plan down my throat this morning during Greek!"

"Be grateful that you don't have to be in the process of planning yet."

"Think I'd like that better, atleast then I can have input on the plan."

"Well duh all Athena kids do- though I still have my doubts on you being one- it can just get a little... hectic at times. I think Annabeth's general rule is that you have to participate in two or three games before you can help with the planning, she wants you to at least know the basics before she lets you start planning."

"How many games do you think I'm going to have to participate in before I can help?"

"I'd personally say around a hundred, realistically though I'd say three maybe four because of how poorly you performed this time. Thanks for that by the way." She said sarcastically, while narrowing her eyes at me.

"Glad I could be your pillow." I answered. "I've only been here three days, what do you expect!" We were where now at the steps to the Athena cabin, I could hear the sounds of trunks slamming shut.

"I expect you not to trip and leave my back open." She answered. I was going to respond, but she walked into the cabin effectively ending the conversation. "Hey guys look who I found getting familiar with the forestry."

They all gave her a questioning look. "He was stuck in a tree." She explained. They all just rolled their eyes and continued putting away their equipment.

"I cleaned out your trunk Sean." Annabeth said as she slammed her trunk closed and slid it back under her bed.

"Thanks Annabeth, what happened out there?" My sibling all shook their heads frantically trying to warn me. I'd made a tactical error asking that question.

"It all went to Hades when the Ares campers ambushed our defences, we weren't expecting that many of them to be on the offensive team. Our defence didn't stand a chance. Which is why next week we need to ensure that we-" She stopped when she heard a knock on the door. It was the guy Annabeth was standing next to on Zeus' Fist.

"Um sorry to interrupt your post-game speech Annabeth-"

"No it's fine! Thank you!" One of my siblings called from behind me, Annabeth turned and glared in the direction of the voice and then turned back to the boy.

"It's fine Percy, is everything okay?"

"Actually you and Malcolm need to come to the Big House; Chiron called an emergency counselors' meeting."

"Oh okay," she turned to look at Malcolm and motioned for him to follow. She looked around the room again and stopped at Lexie, "You know when curfew is right?"

"Duh."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but I could see her smiling slightly. "Just make sure everyone is in bed by then if we aren't back by then." Lexie just nodded and with that Annabeth left with Malcolm and the guy named Percy.

We were all silent, Lexie went over to her bunk and started stripping off her armor. After several minutes everyone else was sitting in their bunks reading something, while I was getting my remaining armor off still.

"You know, Annabeth forgot to mention the fact that the two leaders of our offensive team snuck off sometime during the game." I looked over to see that it was Amanda who spoke.

"Oh I know!" Lexie said sitting up and closing her book, she got up and sat next to Amanda. "I knew as soon as she put him on offensive that something was up. She knows he's best on border patrol, it's his natural element for gods sake!"

I went over to stand by Matthew's bunk and gave him a questioning look, he just shrugged his shoulders. "Girls." He said before returning to his book.

I looked over at my two sisters, "Wait so Annabeth snuck off during the game?"

They both looked up at me. "Oh that's right you don't know any of this yet." Amanda said, she gestured for me to sit on the floor in front of her bed. "So Annabeth snuck off with her boyfriend for some quality time together."

"So in other words she and Percy snuck off to go make out in the woods." Lexie answered.

"Don't act like you and Austin don't do that ever." Amanda said giving Lexie a slight shove.

Lexie just shrugged, though her cheeks were slightly pink, "What can I say it's the perfect opportunity, and you know the rules: _boys and girls can't be alone in the same room. _And _I_ am not a rule breaker." She said innocently.

"You are so full of it." Amanda said shoving her pillow in Lexie's face.

Lexie shoved the pillow back and laughed, "Okay, yes I am full of it, but you'll understand one day and I will tease you to no end when it happens."

"Ahem," I coughed trying to get their attention again, "As entertaining as this is," I said gesturing to the two of them, "Who exactly is Annabeth's boyfriend?"

"Percy... the son of Poseidon, hero of Olympus, the prophecy child..." I shook my head showing I had know idea who that was, "You just saw him a few minutes ago!"

"The guy with the messy black hair?" They both nodded their heads slowly and gave me weird looks. "What does she see in _him!?_"

They both turned to look at each other simultaneously and rolled their eyes, before saying "Boys..."

I sighed and got up as I walked past Matthew's bed, without even looking up from his book, "I tried to tell you."


	5. Chapter 5

I was half asleep when Annabeth and Malcolm came back. I hear them standing outside talking. "What are we going to tell Lexie?" Malcolm said in a muffled voice.

"I don't know Mal, we'll have to tell her in the morning. She thinks he's still coming back." Said Annabeth quietly. "Chiron said that he was sent to scout out mount Tamalpais right?" Malcolm didn't answer as far as I knew. "Lets go inside, we'll have to tell her in the morning."

Before they entered the cabin I rolled on my back and attempted to make it look like I was asleep. I could hear Malcolm climbing the small ladder to his bed while Annabeth got ready for bed. "Night Malcolm." She spoke before rolling over. "Oh and Sean, go to sleep."

"Damn it." I cursed silently as I rolled on my side and went to sleep.

* * *

Annabeth had Lexie speak with her privately the next morning. When they came back she seemed a little off and she looked like she had been crying. She sat between me and Malcolm during breakfast.

"Lex, is everything okay?" I asked. Annabeth shook her head at me. Great, another bad idea. Maybe I should just not talk. Lexie just shrugged and looked at her food, moving it around with her fork but never eating it. _Screw it._ "If something's wrong Lexie, tell me."

She stood up from her seat and ran out of the dining pavilion crying. _Yep, just can't win._ "I should go after her huh?"

"No, stay around, she needs some space. She's going through alot right now." Malcolm ordered.

I sighed. "I guess you're right." I looked over at Annabeth. "What did you tell her?"

"It's kind of complicated." She paused. "You heard about last year's battle against Kronos?" I nodded. "Well, her boyfriend and a few other campers were sent to check the situation with Mount Tamalpais, it was the Titan headquarters during the war." she continued. "But when the campers came back her boyfriend was one of the ones that didn't come back."

"Do you know what happened to him and the others?" I asked.

"More or less." She obviously wasn't going to tell me so I looked to Malcolm and he didn't say anything. "Sorry, but I can't tell you, Chiron's orders."

"Is anybody looking for him?"

She nodded, but didn't say who. "Why don't you go down to the archery range, we'll all meet you down there." I rolled my eyes, but did as she said.

* * *

I approached the archery range. It had a white wooden fence around it and it was pointed towards the ocean. There were already a few kids there and they were busy shooting arrows at the straw targets at the other side of the range. I took one of the bows off the the rack and walked over to one of the targets.

"Hey!" someone shouted from the range. It was Ellie. "What you doing around here?" She asked cheerfully.

"Hey Ellie, you training with us today?" I asked notched one of the arrows. "I was banished here by Annabeth." I joked before letting my arrow fly and hitting the edge of the target.

"You suck. No wonder she sent you here." She laughed. "And yes, so lets see who's better with a bow." She pulled back an arrow and launched it at the target. It hit dead center. "Beat that Ginger."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up Sneakers."

"Don't ever say that again. It's not my fault that a shoe company is named after my mother." she said, slightly irritated.

"Well its not my fault I'm a ginger."

"Just go." She said impatiently.

I notched a second arrow. This time I took my time, aiming more to the left because of the wind. Once I was confident that I would at least hit the target I released the arrow. It struck a lot closer to the center - not that it needed much improvement. "Well, I'm not going to be the next Top Shot, but thats better."

"I think you still suck, you should try this." She placed her hands around mine and changed my positioning. "Now, hold the arrow like this." Ellie instructed moving my fingers around the arrow's nock - its the back of the arrow. "Okay, now fire it." I brought the arrow back again, aimed to the right this time and released the arrow from my grasp. It struck a centimeter from the center dot. "Well, I think I win this." she smirked.

"Maybe I'm just letting the pretty girl win." I smiled.

She grinned. "Keep telling yourself that. It's cute." Then she grabbed her bow and left to join her brothers.

I stayed there for a few more minutes shooting the target. I didn't improve much, but atleast I was hitting the target. Lexie was the first of my siblings to arrive. Her eyes were a bright red and she appeared to have been crying. She stood next to me, but didn't speak.

"Hey Lex."

"Hi." She mumbled.

"I'm sorry for what I asked this morning, I know it's hard for you to talk about." I apologized.

She sighed, "It's fine, I just really don't feel like talking about it right now."

"It's fine, take your time. Lets see how good you are with a bow." I said, holding a bow out to her, hoping to get her mind off her missing boyfriend.

She smiled slightly, but pushed the bow away, "No thanks I have my own." She took a darker colored bow off her back and pulled an arrow out of her jacket. "Prepare to be amazed." She smirked and notched the shaft. She took a second to aim then released the arrow. It struck dead center, better than Ellie had done. She grinned happily.

"Well, you put me to shame."

"I usually do. But ten drachma's says I've been doing this a whole lot longer than you."

"Sorry, fresh out." I said placing my bow on the ground.

"I would imagine so... Anyways I've been doing archery since before I can remember. My dad got me hooked on it."

"I haven't really used a bow, my father took me hunting, but we used rifles." I watched her fire a second arrow. Now all of our siblings were here. Malcolm and Annabeth were eyeing Lexie, probably to make sure she was okay.

"You missed out." She grinned launching a third arrow. "It's a great way to spend your time, me and..." she stopped again. She looked down at her bow. "Austin gave this to me. He was a great shot, a lot better than I am, I hope he's okay."

"I'm sure he is, he's probably just late." I promised.

"I'm going back to the cabin, there's some stuff I need to go take care of. See you later." She threw her bow back on her shoulder, pulled her arrows out of the target and left the range.

I practiced a little bit longer, now I was consistently hitting the target, but I wasn't as good of a shot as my sister - or anyone else really. Annabeth said that we all had some free time, so I placed my bow back on the rack along with my arrows.

Ellie followed me away from the range. "Hey Sean." Said stopping me as I walked towards my cabin. "What's wrong with your sister? She looked like she had been crying, that's why I left."

"She's going through a lot." I answered. "Look, I really don't want to talk about it, I feel really sorry for her. I can't imagine losing someone important to me."

"That's okay. Why don't you come with me, we have a chess board back at my cabin." She asked.

Sure." I said as I followed her towards her cabin.

* * *

The Nike cabin was a bright golden color. A large, golden Laurel hung over the doorway of the cabin, I followed her into the cabin where her brothers' were playing a game of Risk. The interior of the cabin was made of dark wood. The first thing I noticed was the giant TV screen on the wall displaying multiple sporting events, which I assumed were going on around the world at that very moment. The next most noticeable feature was the large trophy case sitting in a corner, displaying multiple trophies and medals- more than my school had had. I walked over to admire all of them.

"Wow, that's a lot of trophies."

Ellie walked up next to me and smiled, "Yeah some of these are from major sporting events, we have several olympic medals as well. But there's more than just awards here, we have a few autographed things it think there's a baseball signed by Babe Ruth somewhere in here." She said pointing to several of them. "But the most prized of all of this is this." She gestured to an extremely old looking helmet.

"Where have I seen that before?" I asked myself, "Isn't this thing like famous."

"Yeah you could say that," she laughed, "This is the helmet of Miltiades, a renowned Olympic chariot-racer. Maybe you've heard of him?"

"Isn't this supposed to be in a museum!?"

"There is one, but that doesn't mean it's the real deal." She smirked and gestured me to follow her.

I followed her over to a chess table that was on the on the opposite side of the cabin. The pieces where silver and gold. Elle chose to sit on the golden side of the table, so I sat down facing her on the silver side. "Ladies first." I smiled.

"Okay." She moved her pawn that stood in front of her king forward two spaces. "You do know that you should never give your opponent the first move."

I rolled my eyes and moved my piece. "Or you can let your enemy go first to analyze their strategy." I grinned planning my next move.

She paused for a moment watching my piece, thinking about my possible plans. Her hands hovered over her knight. "Different viewpoints, allows different strategies." She placed her knight a few spaces from my pawn. "How have you liked your first few day's at camp?"

"It's been a little strange. I feel like I've gone crazy, but other than that- fun."

We played a few turns before she spoke. "Lucky you, when I got here last year we were preparing for war..." She knocked over my bishop and placed me in check, we were both down to only a few pieces and it was getting tense. " Also I had to stay in the Hermes cabin, you wouldn't believe the smell that would come out of that cabin. I think the Stoll's had a few too many fart bombs in their back packs."

I laughed a little bit. "So you didn't enjoy camp?" I asked before moving my king away from check.

"Damn!" She cursed. "That's not what I'm saying. It provided a challenge, and I sought to beat that challenge." Now she was the one protecting her King, I had used my last castle to force her to move her king.

"So this is all just for competition to you? Camp I mean." I asked, slightly confused by her statement.

"No, not at all." She answered. "I understand it's meant to protect me and train me so I can stay alive, but the competition is what makes me strive to be the best and I want to be the very best."

"Like no one ever was before?" We both laughed. Then a horn blew. "Looks like we'll have to call it a draw."

"More like I win. Checkmate." She moved her last pawn and she was right, I had lost. "Good game, you were almost a challenge." She grinned.

I punched her playfully in the arm, "I'll figure out how you did that later, Lets go."


	6. Chapter 6

Despite the amazing day I had had, that night I had the strangest dream.

_The first sight I was greeted to was a few kids being led forcefully down a street and into a building. _

"_I told you this was going to happen! We need to act now!" I turned towards the voice to see that I was standing in next to three people all wearing togas. The two that were closest to me, a brunette girl and blond boy, wore golden chest plates and had dark purple capes hanging off their backs. They were both glaring at the third person a skinny, blond boy with a belt that had stuffed animals hanging off of it._

_The blond boy in the armor answered. "We don't know they are Greeks, they could just be half-bloods that have managed to survive without getting here, and even if they are-"_

_The boy with the stuffed animals on his belt interrupted him. "Can't you see it!" He pointed _

"_No. Please Octavian reveal to us what no one, but you can see." Said the girl sarcastically. "You've been crying wolf for the past year, what 'proof' do you have this time?" She used air quotes around proof._

"_Look at this sword." He motioned for one of the people escorting the prisoners to walk over to him. The guard handed him a bronze sword. "This is NOT imperial gold, I have no idea what kind of metal it is."_

_The other boy rolled his eyes and said. "Octavian, it's Celestial bronze, we have a few in the armory, all this does is suggest that they're thieves, not Greeks." He took the sword from him and passed it to the girl._

"_I don't have time for this." The girl turned away from the boys. "Jason will you meet me in the forum in an hour, we must discuss something." She left the boys behind her._

_Jason nodded. "Meet you there." He turned back to Octavian. "Honestly Octavian, you need to get out more. You are just spewing crazy, half-baked idea's at this point." He also turned and walked away. _

"_You're making a mistake! We need to act before it's too late, all we're doing is giving them more time to prepare to attack us!"_

"_What I said is final Octavian. Reyna and I will not start a war against an enemy that no one, but you thinks still exists." The boy named Jason barked before walking off in the direction the girl went._

_Octavian stomped his foot before storming off in the opposite direction. "Fine. If they don't do something about it then I will"_

* * *

I woke up quickly. That was weird, I usually slept like a log. The dream seemed foggy now, I only could remember fragments of it. _Better not to tell anyone, they might think I'm crazy. _I thought as I looked around the cabin. The lights were off, but I could hear shuffling on the other side of the room. I could see a shape pulling a backpack over it's shoulder. I grabbed my sword from the floor below me and crept over to the shape. "What are you doing!?" I said grabbing the shape's shoulder.

The shape turned towards me. It was Lexie. "Shhh! You'll wake Annabeth!" she whispered angrily.

"Where are you going?" I asked putting my sword down on a desk.

She pulled her jacket's hood up over her head. "I'm going to find Austin and you can't tell Annabeth you saw me leave!" She threw her bow over her shoulder and grabbed a handful of arrows and slid them in her jacket's Pocket.

"Are you crazy!"

"No. I know what I'm doing, I'm going to take one of the Pegasi and take it all the way to San Francisco, Austin told me where he was going before he left camp."

"You'll need somebody who knows the area." I said grabbing my backpack and throwing a pair of clothes inside of it. "I'm going with you."

"No you aren't. What use could _you _possibly be." She ordered pushing me away from my trunk. "Stay here where its safe."

"Lexie, I'm not going to let you go alone." I demanded. "Now either I come along with you or I wake Annabeth and we all talk about this."

She glared at me. "I hate you sometimes... You'd better not slow me down. I don't take 'I'm a rookie' as an excuse."

I rolled my eyes. "Lets just hurry up and get going before anybody wakes up... I can't believe I'm doing this." I slung my backpack over my shoulders and followed my sister out the door.

"_I _would have already been gone, by now, so _you _hurry up." Lexie demanded as we passed by the Nike cabin. She paused as she noticed somebody sitting on the steps to a cabin. " Who's there!" she demanded.

"Sneaking out?" Asked a familiar voice. "I knew you would, I'm all packed. Figured it'd be a challenge, sound's fun." Then Ellie stepped out of the doorway.

"No. I'm not taking anyone else. So sorry, but I've got to be going now. Bye, don't wait up." She said sarcastically as she walked away from her.

I stopped her. "Lex, I think we'll need all the help we can get." I warned. Ellie eyed us from the steps probably trying to figure out a way to change her mind.

"Well I didn't want any help in the first place!" Snapped Lexie.

"Well, you have no choice in me coming, and I want her to come."

Ellie walked over to us. "You should probably stop talking now Sean." She grinned. "You aren't helping your case. I want to come because I want the challenge and because I want to help a friend."

"So you're an adrenaline junkie..." Lexie mumbled, "Just perfect! Look why don't you two go flirt by Zeus' Fist and we'll all forget this ever happened! Okay good! See ya!"

"Quit trying to talk us out of coming with, you're going to need help. I was at the meeting when they talked about your boyfriend going missing so if you want to find him, you are going to need my help." Offered Ellie.

"You're the Nike councilor!?" I asked, a little surprised by the new information.

"I'm the oldest of my brothers and I've been around the longest, so yeah. I am." She bragged.

"Why are you both so insistent on coming with me?"

"Because we want to help, now can I come or not?" Ellie grinned as she adjusted her backpack. "Anyway, you are going to need my help keeping him from getting killed." She slapped my back, making me stumble forward.

"Don't tell him, but I was planning on ditching him at the closest gas station."

"Well now you won't have the chance, can I come or not... You are going to need my information."

Lexie narrowed her eyes at her as if examining how useful she'd be. "Fine. But if either of you slow me down I swear on the River Styx I will ditch you the first chance I get."

"Good, now then." I said cheerfully to break the tension. "Shall we go?"

"Shut up." Lexie said before walking off towards the stables. We both shrugged and took off after her.

* * *

"Sean _please _tell me you know how to ride a Pegasus." Lexie said as she threw a saddle over one of the flying horses.

"Umm..."I stuttered. "About that... Annabeth was-"

"Save it! You better hope Ellie will let you ride with her because I sure as Hades ain't letting you ride with me."

"He can ride with me, I'm fine with it, and this way we don't take half of the camp's pegasi." Ellie offered me her hand and pulled me up behind her. "Comfortable back there?" I nodded. "Okay, we're good, let's get this mobile feast on the road."

Lexie nodded and she and her Pegasus took off in the night. We were about fifty feet in the air when I realized what was going on. "Ahh!" I screamed tightening my grip on Ellie. "Note to self, don't look down!" I yelled over the wind.

"You'll get used to it, I remember I almost fell my first time." The daughter of Nike in front of me. "Or did I fall? It was all a blur." That didn't really help my confidence. "You'll be fine, just hold on." She chuckled.

"Thanks!" I said sarcastically. "If I fall, I'm taking you with me!" I joked, trying to not focus on the ground below me.

We flew until the sun was on the horizon behind us. Ellie sped up our pegasus to catch up to Lexie. Once we were flying along side her she shouted "We need to let the Pegasi rest, they can't keep up this speed for much longer!" The wind muffled her voice, but I think Lexie heard her because she nodded.

We could see the Washington Monument now, which meant we were nearing Washington D.C. Lexie pointed her winged horse towards the grassy area in front of the Smithsonian.

We all climbed off ourPegasi. "This is bad how did we end up in D.C! That's means we've been heading south this whole time!"Lexie complained as she took her saddlebags off the pegasus.

"Thank you!" Lexie said snatching the money out of Ellie's hand.

"No, I hold on to the money, it will keep you from disappearing." Said Ellie yanking the money back out of Lexie's hand and shoving it back in her pocket.

"No, I told you I'll ditch you _if _you slow me down, so just don't do that and we won't have a problem. Plus I didn't have to let you come and I'm the only one that's ever been here before so I know where everything is...more or less."

"Call it insurance, my stolen money, I hold onto the money." Ellie said, "Something I learned from my time in the Hermes cabin, never give something to someone who doesn't want you around." She grinned.

"You got that part right." Lexie smirked.

"So where are we going to eat?"

"What's your preference?"

"Somewhere with eggs, I could go for an omelet." I offered. "Maybe some bacon."

"Do you have the money? No. Ellie where would _you _like to eat."

"I agree with Ginger, I could go for some bacon right now."

"Next thing I know you'll be teaming up against me... but right now that is not a problem because I could use some waffles and hashbrowns. To Waffle House!"

"Never been there, I hope they have orange juice."said Ellie. We followed Lexie off the lawn and towards the city.


	7. Chapter 7

After we ate we returned to the Pegasi. The two brown winged horses were still exhausted. They were laying lazily eating the grass while lying on their wings. Ellie tried to force them to stand, but they stubbornly refused to budge from their position. "Stupid animals!" She cursed.

"Maybe Lexie just overworked them?" I shot a look at Lexie.

"Or maybe you're too heavy and exhausted the one you were riding."

"Then why is your's just as tired!" I snapped. "Are you saying you weigh as much as two people?" Even Ellie chuckled slightly. "What are we gonna do until they're ready?"

"No, I packed more than you two I'm sure, and I'm carrying your stuff too."She said gesturing to the saddlebags next to her Pegasus. "I can't believe you brought your computer!"

"You went through my stuff!?" I said pushing her. "I don't go rummaging around in your stuff!"

"Clearly because I'm the one carrying it, and I had nothing else to do. You know minecraft is a pretty interesting game. Oh and your battery is at fifteen percent now."

"If you two are done bickering like brothers and sisters can we figure out what we're going to do until the Pegasi are ready to fly again!" She realized what she had said.

"You do realize we are siblings right?"

"Although I still have my doubts." Lexie coughed.

"That's beside the point!"

"Look we're in DC, some of the best museums are here." Lexie pointed to the large white building behind us. "My dad and I went here last time we were here, it's actually kinda of interesting. I remember they have Dorothy's shoes from The Wizard of Oz, and an exhibit on the Revolutionary War one on the Civil War."

I immediately stopped her. "Sold! Let's go! Sounds interesting." I grabbed my backpack from Lexie's saddle bag and threw it over my shoulder. "Civil War exhibit first!"

"Quite a man you've got there." I heard Lexie mumble to Ellie, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

* * *

The first thing I did when I entered the museum was run over to the map that was next to the main desk. I scanned the map quickly looking for the Civil War exhibit. When Lexie and Ellie caught up to me I was ready to bolt over to the stairs and find the exhibit myself. Ellie grabbed my shoulder before I disappeared again.

"Sean!" She said pulling me around in a spin. "Calm down, take a breath."

I took a deep breath. when I had calmed down a little I said, "Sorry Ellie... A little excited, I've always wanted to come here!" I was shaking like a little kid.

"I can see that." she laughed. "But don't take off, gods know's what kind of monsters are around here." She looked around the gigantic room. "Okay, which way is it?"

I pointed to a room that was just above us on the map. "We just need to go up these stairs." Then I pointed to the closest staircase on the map. I motioned for them to follow me in the direction of the stairs. Ellie stayed close behind me, and Lexie lagged a few steps behind.

When we arrived at the exhibit I noticed four girls around our age huddled around a small cannon in a glass case. They were all wearing rather short skirts and my first impression of them was the cheerleader type of girl. They made me a little uncomfortable as Ellie and I crossed the room towards the first part of the exhibit.

Lexie stood by the doorway watching us. "We gotta leave here in an hour so don't just stand there if you want to see the rest of the museum." She ordered from the doorway.

I ignored her and turned toward the relics. The first thing I saw was an old uniform, it was worn and had bullet holes in several sections. Then I moved on to the weapons case. There was a large assortment of weapons, pistols, rifles, and cavalry sabers. One sat in a case by itself, I leaned over to get a closer look at it, but somebody touched my shoulder.

I turned around and all four of the girls had surrounded Ellie and me. Their mouths grinned malevolently. "Hi." Said the center one flirtatiously as she stepped between me and Ellie. "My name's Jordan, have you seen the culture exhibit?" She grabbed my hand and started to tow me away.

I looked back at Ellie. "Umm..." I stuttered. "I'm here with some friends, sorry." I yanked my hand out of her tight grasp and rejoined Ellie. "Maybe some other time." I lied.

"I'm too hungry to wait, so I'm gonna make you an offer." She grinned as her "friends" circled us. "You let us kill you and we'll make it as painless as we can, deal?"

Ellie gripped my hand tightly. "Go to Hades!" Ellie pulled out her sword and pointed it at the girl. "Back off, there isn't any way I'm going to let you kill us." The girl's growled, each showing long white fangs.

"You can try and fight us, but it'll just be prolonging your death." Jordan sneered. "You can run, but you'll only die tired." They took a step forward and all their hair burst into orange flames. Their skin's color drained to pale and their eyes changed to a glowing red. "So what's it gonna be?"

I looked around the room for Lexie, but couldn't find her. Ellie swung her sword at the girl to her left and she disappeared in a golden plume of dust. "We'll take our chances." She said swinging her sword again. This time her target dodged her attack and Ellie stumbled to regain her balance.

I drew my sword and rolled from where i was standing, just in time to avoid getting slashed by Jordan's claws. She hissed again and leapt at me again. I shielded myself with my sword, her clawed hands grasped around the hilt of my blade. We struggled over the sword for a few seconds, when she kicked me in the gut and sent me flying into one of the glass cases.

She threw my sword over the side of the railing. She slowly walked over to me. I frantically looked around the ruins of the exhibit for something to defend myself with. I dove for the sword I had almost landed on. My hands settled around it's grip. I immediately swung the bronze sword in front of me just as Jordan charged me.

She disintegrated into a pile of golden dust, similar to what had happened to the other girl. I looked for Ellie, she was fighting off both of the flame-headed, demon girls by herself. I was halfway across the room when an arrow sprouted from one of their heads and she burst into dust. I looked over and Lexie was pulling back her bow and launched a second arrow, killing the second demon girl instantly.

"Empousa." Sighed Lexie. "Freaking vampire demon girls." Lexie placed her bow back in her backpack. "You two okay?"

Ellie nodded and walked over to us. "Nice blade, where did you get it?"

I pointed over to the remains of the glass case it had been in. "I grabbed it when that thing threw my sword."

"A hero is only as good as his weapon." Lexie joked. "And you are a bad hero."

I ignored her comment and walked over to the ruined display case. I looked at the plaque above the case. "It was General Sherman's saber." I pulled the sword's scabbard our from the destroyed glass. "It say's it was given to him after his victory at Shiloh." I looked over at Ellie and Lexie. "I do need a sword of my own." I looked at the sword's grip, there was the shape of a woman stabbing a dragon on the hilt.

Lexie came over to me and looked at it. "That's Mom! Why is she on Sherman's sword..."

I was about to say something, but Ellie interrupted me. "That's all very nice, but we better get out of here before security get's here and wonder's why you are holding a museum artifact." It was true, I could hear the sound of people running down the hall. We must have made a lot of noise in the short amount of time we were fighting. "Come on let's get out of here!" She was at the steps now.

I looked at the hilt of the saber again. "Mom." I slid the blade into its scabbard, then ran down the stair's following Ellie and Lexie. We bolted down the stairs, and sprinted for the door way. Two security guards almost grabbed us, but we were able to slip away from them.

Once we were outside we ran to our Pegasi, Lexie flug her saddlebags over her's and climbed on. Ellie flung herself on her's and pulled me on behind her. The museum security was right behind us. I barely had enough time to wrap my arms around Ellie, when we bolted into the sky. I could hear the security guard's yelling behind us as we glided away, I couldn't help but wonder what they thought they had seen.

**_AN/ I'm posting this a few days early because today my birth (thought) day_**


	8. Chapter 8

**An/ Hey, I'm posting this one early, and without telling Lexie, because I have a football game to play (pep band) on Friday and Senior Homecoming dance (I have a date!) so I wont have time to post it. **

The Pegasi weren't exactly happy that we had rushed them into the air so quickly. They stampeded through the sky at speeds well over what we had pushed them to before. Ellie was unable to steer the winged horse as it rocketed after Lexie's. After three hours they started to decelerate to a more manageable speed.

Ellie looked back to make sure I was still behind her. When she saw me, she smiled. "That was a little more than I expected, I don't think I've ever seen them fly that fast before." Her voice was still muffled over the sound of the rushing wind, but I could still hear her.

I was shaking a little bit, I had never been a person for height's. Riding a Pegasus at a speed like that felt like riding on top of a passenger jet while there's turbulence. I looked down at the ground two hundred feet below us. The scenery had drastically changed. The land was a lot flatter, and trees seemed to be less densely packed. I could see a large city on the horizons. "Ellie, we need to stop and talk to Lexie." I yelled over the wind. "We need to figure out where we are." Ellie nodded and was about to speed up the Pegasus, but Lexie got the same idea and veered her's toward the ground.

We landed in a clearing. All three of us climbed off our Pegasi and unpacked. "Where do you think we are?"Lexie asked. Me and Ellie both shrugged. "Great..." She looked around.

"I don't think we're anywhere near D.C. we were flying too long for that." Ellie placed her pack on the ground and laid back on it.

"Where are we going in the first place?" I asked as I checked my backpack to be certain Lexie hadn't thrown my laptop out during the flight.

"California, somewhere around the Bay Area. That's where Austin was when I last heard from him."

"I think we're in Texas."

Lexie looked over at Ellie. "How do you know that?" She seemed surprised.

"I'm from here.." She pointed to the skyline. "That's Dallas, my dad lives there. So again, you are welcome I came along." She threw me a bottle of water from her pack. "Now then, what's the plan?"

"Honestly, I never thought I'd get this far." Lexie admitted. The Pegasi made a horrible screeching noise. "What the Hades!" We all looked over at them. Again they reared up on their hind hooves. "Oh no!" Lexie shouted before the winged -horses bolted into the sky again and flew east.

"Well crap.." I cursed. "Now what we gonna do?" I kicked the dirt in front of me.

"We go to to the bus station. We've already made it halfway across the country in half a day, I think we'll be able to-" Ellie grabbed her gut and winced. I ran to her side.

"Move your hands." I ordered. After a few seconds I was able to pry her hands away to reveal four long, bloody gashes that went along her stomach. "Oh crap, things keep getting worse." I complained as I put pressure on the wound.

"The Empousa must have gotten me in the museum." She groaned. "Sean, get the thermos out of my backpack."

"I got it, Sean just keep applying pressure to that. I'm going to use your jacket as a bandage too okay?" I just nodded in response. Lexie jogged over and handed me an open thermos. "Give her _some _of this, just a couple of sips we need to save it and I don't want it to do more harm than good." I quickly took the thermos out of her hand.

I used one hand to hold it up to Ellie's lips while the other kept the pressure on the wound. She quickly took to large sips and I pulled it away from her. The gash started to slowly shrink. "You okay Ellie?" I asked as I held her hand.

"I still hurt's." She groaned. "I don't think I can continue for the day."

I looked over at Lexie. "You aren't going to ditch us are you?" I said sarcastically.

"We have to find and wait for a bus anyways, by the time we do that I think it'll be safe for Ellie to have more nectar and I think she'll be fine." Lexie threw me my saber that I had left laying next to my backpack. "Let's get moving."

I attached my new sword to my belt, pulled my backpack on and helped Ellie stand up. "You think you can make it a few miles?" I asked as she slung her arm over my shoulder.

"If you can make it, I think I will." She smiled. Lexie grabbed both her's and Ellie's backpacks and led the way towards the road.

* * *

The heat was not making it easy to help Ellie walk the entire distance to Dallas. By the time we arrived, we were covered in sweat and our legs were sore. We stopped at the first bus stop we could find. It wasn't one that would take us to the next state, but it would at least get us to the station.

Ellie flopped down next to me and rested her head on my lap. "Are you okay?" I asked. I opened the bottle of water she had given to me and passed it to her.

"Thanks." She said dryly. "Sean, you're a good friend." She smiled up at me.

"I'm not the good friend." I corrected. "You are the one risking your life to help." She passed me the bottle and I took a long drink from it, not even bothering to wipe it first.

Lexie was sitting on the other side of the bench rolling her eyes. She watched as a bus approached. It was still around four in the afternoon, but as the bus got closer it's headlights grew brighter. I had to shield my eyes as it pulled up to the bus stop.

When I could finally open my eye's I could see that the bus was a blinding yellow and said "the bus of hot shots" painted in dark red on the side. It's door's opened slowly, revealing a teenage boy with sandy blonde hair and a tan. He was wearing a bleach white T-shirt and torn jeans. "Well, don't just stand there, let's get a move on." He ordered waving to us and gesturing to the bus.

"Austin!"I looked over just in time to see Lexie bolt up from the bench and hugged him.

The boy smiled sympathetically and gently pushed her back. "I'm sorry Lexie," He apologized shaking his head, "but I'm not your boyfriend." Lexie's excitement disappeared just as quickly as it had come and had been replaced with disappointment.

"Who are you then?" She croaked.

The boy smiled showing off his shining, white teeth, "I'm sure that you've heard of me before. I mean I am the big _hot _shot on Olympus. Literally."

"Lord Apollo." She said blushing with embarrassment as she slightly bowed.

He smiled again before turning to a serious expression, "Right you are, I can see why my son likes you. Now we have no time to lose! Get in." He said motioning to the bus again. "I need you three to do me a favor."

Lexie grabbed her stuff and climbed aboard the vehicle. I looked down at Ellie, she rolled up right and had me help her walk to the vehicle. Luckily it was air-conditioned, if I had to sit in that heat for another minute I was sure I would burst into flames. I sat down on the first row of seats next to Lexie.

"Okay, first of all, thank you." Apollo said sitting back in the bus seat and starting it. "I didn't think anybody would come this far to find my son, I'd look myself, but I'm not allowed to..."

"Is that why you picked us up?" Asked Ellie politely, but still strained. "Just because you wanted to thank us for looking for Austin?" Her head rested on my shoulder tiredly.

"That's _a _reason." Answered the god. "But I need another thing, then I can help you three get to California."

I looked at Lexie, who appeared to be considering the possibilities of what he wanted us to do. "What are the terms?"

"You two," he said pointing to me and Lexie, "go retrieve something for me - she can stay here. I'll even heal her free of charge." He pointed to Ellie, who was clutching her wound. "If you succeed and return, I'll get you a ride to California."

"You aren't gonna leave me here alone are you?!" Ellie blurted out.

"Aw don't worry I'll keep you company." Apollo winked. Ellie scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Lexie ignored the comment. "What will we be doing?"

Apollo grinned. "Okay, so I was doing this music gig the other day at the Dallas football stadium, anyway long story short, cute girl - not as cute as you." He grinned over at Ellie who rolled her eyes. I felt like I was going to explode, who was he to be hitting on her - not that I- never mind... "Anyways long story short I left my lyre at the stadium and I need you two to go get it for me." Finished the god.

"Why don't you go get it yourself? Why send us to get something you forgot?" I asked.

"Because I am a busy god and if I go down there I will be swarmed by fan girls just because of my pure awesomeness." Apollo pushed back his hair like he was in a movie and smiled at Ellie again. "So are you going to help me?" He stopped the bus in front of a gigantic football stadium.

All things considered what choice did we have. "Okay, so where is your lyre?" Lexie asked as we stood up from our seats.

"It _should _be somewhere inside. Everything after the concert is a blur, I must have been... ah nevermind." He grinned. "It will most likely look like a guitar to you two, so the best advice I can give you is to look for a shiny golden guitar that screams property of Apollo. Now get going, I need to get moving within the hour if I'm to keep on schedule. The sun doesn't set on it's own if you know what I mean."

We nodded, then I looked at Ellie. "Hurry back." She stood up painfully and hugged me.

"We will." I promised. She looked a little worried as I pulled away from her. Lexie was already out the door by the time I turned around.


End file.
